Posted on 06/10/2003 12:29:31 PM PDT by Shermy
FREDERICK - In a costly and unusual step in its hunt for the anthrax killer, the FBI began draining a 1-acre trout pond in a Frederick County forest yesterday, hoping to find discarded biological equipment or telltale anthrax spores on its muddy bottom.
The project, estimated to cost about $250,000 and take several weeks, began yesterday morning after a state biologist told investigators how to avoid trampling a rare yellow-fringed orchid and other endangered species in the area.
The search follows the discovery in the pond last winter of a plastic box that some investigators believe may have been used by the person who mailed anthrax-laced letters to news media organizations and U.S. senators in 2001. The attacks killed five and sickened at least 17.
The object appeared to be a homemade glove box, a biological safety device fitted with gloves to protect someone working with dangerous germs, though no gloves were attached. Anthrax tests on a rope also found in the pond have been inconclusive, according to a law enforcement official.
...One official who talks regularly to investigators said the task force is divided into one faction that believes Hatfill is still a promising suspect and another that is frustrated by the failure to find substantive evidence against him. "Even the ones who favor draining the pond aren't all that certain they'll find anything," the source said.
"When Steve heard the news this morning, he just chuckled and shook his head that they would waste all that money," said his spokesman, Pat Clawson. "They can search every pond in Maryland and drain the Pacific Ocean and they won't find evidence linking Steve Hatfill to the anthrax attacks, because there is no such evidence. On the other hand, if this will help further establish Steve's innocence, we welcome it." ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sunspot.net ...
The original story about the gloves I bbelieve has been discarded. No gloves were found, I heard. Only the box and vials.
Mr. Shane's mention that "no gloves were attached" shows he is knowledgable on the subject - gloves are attached to glove boxes by various air-tight (and water-tight) apparatuses. No gloves, no apparatuses were found. The hypothetical of placing the gloves through holes in a box doesn't hold water - or should I say, doesn't hold back water.
If, as you say, Hatfill would have had access to real glove boxes, why would he have used some kind of makeshift substitute?
The other concurrent thread had information that Boy Scouts frequently camp near or otherwise use this particular pond. Hatfil is quoted as saying he had, in fact, visited the pond with some Boy Scouts.
The FBI is suspiciously not showing a picture of what they found. This is highly reminescent of their failure to immediately identify the renegade FBI agent who shot the Boy Scout in the jaw last year thinking he was a bankrobber, or so he says.
Sounds like they are letting that Baltimore office in on the Anthrax Attack investigation and that can't be good for any of us.
Although it is very important the perpetrators (if not already dead) of this attack be stopped so they can't do it again, it really doesn't look like the Justice Department is putting it's best people on the job, and that's a crying shame.
Back in the late 1970s a group of YPSL (Young Peoples Socialist League) folk started growing up, getting married and needing medical insurance as well as paying jobs.
A bunch of them hired on at the New York Bulk and Foreign Facility in New Jersey.
The unions were talking strike fairly vigorously so the YPSL guys went on strike ~ all by themselves!
They all got fired.
A fringe group within YPSL took it upon themselves to intimidate the Postmaster General. They never got rehired. You better believe they never gave up their grudge either.
Given that the FBI seems unable or unwilling to investigate these people to see if they may have been involved in this latest event could you possibly arrange for your friends in Mossad to take a look-see. Remember, some of them are probably friends and associates with Barbara Hatch Rosenberg.
FBI draining pond in its anthrax investigation
"... One of the sources said investigators decided to drain the pond because they did not want to be criticized later for not following a potential lead. The pond is in a city-owned forest near the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, one of several U.S. labs that has had anthrax stocks.It is one of 10 ponds near Gambrill State Park that FBI divers searched in December and January after some theorized that the anthrax attacker could have discarded equipment there. During those searches, a plastic box and rope were found in the pond that now is being drained. The discovery led some investigators to speculate that the culprit could have kept the box in water while using it to load powder containing anthrax into envelopes that were sent to media outlets and two U.S. senators. The theorizers say this could be how the culprit was not contaminated. However, other law enforcement sources dispute that theory.
The theory was buoyed when initial tests on the rope indicated traces of anthrax, four federal law enforcement sources familiar with the probe told USA TODAY last month. But the sources said further testing contradicted those results, casting doubt among investigators about whether the box and rope were related to the attacks.
One of the sources said investigators decided to drain the pond because they did not want to be criticized later for not following a potential lead
Well, that's true enough in a big case. I think if Laci's body didn't float up the "Peterson" threads here would be filled with voices demanding San Francisco Bay be pumped dry. ;)
What remains a mystery to me is how they can keep a straight face and still crank in left-wing antisemitism into these issues. I mean, like........!
Liberal media hates the FBI, the police, the CIA, the Justice Department and the military.
They also hate naming sources unless it furthers their agenda.
Leni
It's like they have nothing better to do, or have no idea how to investigate anything.
Wonder what they'll say if they end up clearing him? The same pat apology they gave to that security guy after the Olympic bombing?
It's all academic, because they are NEVER going to clear him. They want to destroy his life, drive him insane, and get him to eat the business end of a .38, so they can say, "See, we told you it was him."
Good joke. You can't prove a negative. So finding nothing in the pond won't mean Hatfill is not still in play or "of interest". And I doubt very much they'll find monogrammed anthrax vials in that pond belonging to S.H. But it keeps the ball in the air a little longer. And who knows. All kinds of stuff can turn up when you go draining ponds.
Speaking of S.H., was there ever actually anything stated or claimed which specifically linked him to this pond? (not a rhetorical question)
Interesting factoid; had not seen this stated before. So the invisible girlfriend is Malaysian. I wonder if this Washington Post article is the first "disclosure" of that. The timing as well as the content should always be taken into account.
And, to use a pond metaphor and "muddy the waters" a bit, guess what the majority (and official) religion of Malaysia is? None other than Islam. There's a good chance this stealthy lady, assuming she exists, would have to have Muslim origins. See e.g. Religious Freedom In Majority Islamic Countries. Why, shoot, they even have Islamic extremists there. Makes all kinds of interesting directions this could go in.
Voila!
Hoax letters are just that - hoaxes. There were such hoaxes all over the world, and the US. The selection of these two is part of a possible frame job by innuendo. and they're damn weak connections at that.
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